Gardiner officials to consider extending Summer Street development agreement

Gardiner officials will consider extending an agreement with the company that’s developing four parcels of property at the north edge of the city’s downtown when they meet Wednesday.

Developers Collaborative, based in Portland, has been working to develop the four former T.W. Dick Co. parcels on Summer Street since it was identified as the preferred developer in late 2015.

Tracey Steuber, economic development director and planner for the city of Gardiner, said the existing agreement is being extended for a year.

City officials acquired the four lots on Summer Street from the former T.W. Dick Co., with plans to clean up the industrial contaminants on the site and redevelop the properties, some of which border Cobbosseecontee Stream.

In 2015, MaineGeneral Medical Center provided the city with a letter of intent, signaling its interest in relocating some of its Gardiner offices to a new medical arts building on one of the Summer Street parcels. Thanks in part to that document, Gardiner officials were able to secure more than $750,000 in both state and federal funds to clean up the site.

Its early proposals included both affordable senior housing and affordable workforce housing as well as a medical arts building. Since then, MaineGeneral opted to relocate some of its Gardiner offices and an express care center to Central Maine Crossing, a site under development on Brunswick Avenue, near Exit 49 on Interstate 295 and not far from the Libby Hill Business Park.

In 2018, Developers Collaborative completed construction on an 8,000-square-foot facility to lease to Fresenius Medical Care, an international company that provides kidney care and other medical services.

Construction on the workforce housing units started earlier this year. Michael Lyne, chief operating officer of Developers Collaborative, said Tuesday that construction is expected to be completed on those units by March.

“Some are flats and some are town homes,” Lyne said. “We have a cool kit of parts we can adjust depending on the site.”

By the end of the year, DC Management will start to put together a list of applicants for the one-two- and three-bedroom units, he said. For more information, interested people can call 772-3225.

The final parcel for development sits at the northwest corner of the intersection of Summer and Bridge streets, overlooking the bridge construction project that’s now underway. And that’s the parcel for which the extension for the option is being considered.

Lyne said while the broker marketing that remaining parcel has received a number of calls, the bridge construction that is expected to continue into next year may be dampening interest in the site.

“It’s an interesting site for some, not for others,” he said, adding that a small medical or professional office would benefit from the traffic that passes that site every day.

He said he expects more targeted marketing of the site to start soon.

City elected officials are also expected to:

• Hold a public hearing and consider proposed changes to the General Assistance Ordinance;

• Consider a request from former City Councilor Phil Hart to install a Waterfront Park memorial bench in honor of Donnie Mansir;

• Consider the city’s fiscal year 2020 contract with Gardiner Ambulance Service;

• Discuss, evaluate and consider approving sewer abatement requests

• Consider approval of a victualer’s license for Diggy Dogs Food Truck to sell food at Bateau Brewing on Sept. 20

• Accept the minutes to the Aug. 14 and Sept. 4 meetings

Executive sessions will be held on two topics at the end of the meeting, one on a property tax poverty abatement request and one on the annual review of the city manager.

The Gardiner City Council meets at 6 p.m., Wednesday in the City Council chamber at 6 Church St.